Only One: The Human who Survived
by Phrenpai
Summary: Sean wakes up from his deep, thousands-year-old sleep, and has come to realize that he may be the only one left alive in his shelter. He realizes that life on Earth has continued without the human race, leaving strange aquatic life to take to the lands and replace them. Sean will have to confront these creatures and unravel the mystery behind his race's extinction.
1. Chapter 0: Groundbreaking Discovery

_**Hello readers! I've been wanting to make a Splatoon fanfic for a while. I've always been unhappy at the fact that all humans are extict in the game's lore, so here's a story about one who has survived through all these years.**_ _**Please give me your feedback to let me know if I should make more!**_

 **Chapter 0: Groundbreaking Discovery**

The octoling mine is running smoothly. The giant mechanical drills are drilling, the miners are working tirelessly, and the Mine Advisory Units are intructing clearly. The entire facility is at work in search for another source of power for their cities and military, since the inklings have the majority of the zapfish's population. The sounds of machinery and metal against stone echo and clatter against the cave walls, the workers feeling like they may not be able to hear very well for the next couple of days after this. Meanwhile, the head MAU (Mine Advisory Unit) Anthia overlooks the field of work being done at the top of one of the underground equipment station, along side her co-adviser Renin, another octoling. Anthia is a female octoling with long blue tentacles, purple eyes, a bit taller than most octolings, and has long round ears. She is wearing her MAU uniform along with a utility belt for the mining electronics. Anthia is casually resting on the railing of the top floor balcony while Renin stands up straight, for he is the obedient soldier type of person. Renin has bright short red tenticles, red eyes, short ears, and is about average height. He too has his own MAU uniform and equipment.

"There hasn't been any signs of energy emitting from this damn mine. Nothing but metals and stone", Anthia says rather unhappily.

The military's general assigned the mining department to work extra time in the caves as a desperate search for another source of power, despite it being very rare to find any success.

"But Advisor Anthia, we _have_ to have power for our families. This is our last resort for having power for our populus-"

Renin is cut off by Anthia's sharp reply. "Don't 'But Advisor' me, Renin. Finding an electricity source underground is like looking for gold in the clouds. Besides, stealing the zapfishes back is our _real_ last resort."

"It's kind of hard to keep the zapfishes for long before the Agents up top do thier jobs. They always retrieve the zapfishes not long after we have them." Renin timidly says, looking down at his feet.

"Stingy inklings. They don't bother breeding the zapfish and sharing them?" The MAU pauses after these words, then sighs. "I'm just tired of watching these octarians work all day. No one is even getting paid overtime, including me and you."

Another moment of silence passes as the work continue below the two. Then, Renin speaks up again. "If you think about it, we are working for everyone's behalf. Our work determines the fate of all the other octarians and octolings."

"I guess you're correct, Renin. For an ex-military grunt, your head has a brain", Anthia says.

"Uh... Thanks?" Renin isn't sure to be offended or not. Most of his friends are military grunts, after all.

The two continue overseeing the workers mining below, until they both notice some commotion going on a ways back the working grounds. A group of octarians and octlings seem to be gathered together at a certain dig spot of the area, and not that many workers should be working in one place.

"What's going on down there? Don't they know they shouldn't waste time chatting around?" Anthia says, agitatedly.

"I'll go check to see what they are doing", says Renin, his eyes staring down the workyard.

"I'm coming too. They need a piece of my mind." Anthia replies.

The two leave the balcony to enter the building. They both take an industrial elevator to meet ground floor, then finally approach the commotion. Anthia and Renin notice a couple of workers looking down at their handheld mining devices while others are conversing. A high pitched beeping noise can be heard from these devices.

"What seems to be the holdup in work?" Anthia raises her voice towards the workers as they all jump from her sudden presence.

"U-uh, Advisor Anthia! Sorry to stop working, but...", The octoling worker shows the MAU his voltage reader. "all of our indicators read positive for nearby electrical currents. We may have found something!"

Both Anthia's and Renin's eyes light up from surprise. "Is there anything else that you found?" Renin asks.

"Yes", says another worker. "We've seemed to mine through a small vault of some sort."

"This is outstanding! Someone, report to Mr. Octavio!" Renin says eagerly

"No Renin, not yet. We have to know for sure what we have come across." Anthia turns to one of the octolings. "You, gather as much workers as you can and have them work on this vault!"

Anthia and Renin focused on what the workers were uncovering as they chip away at the stone, revealing more and more of the vault. Before, they only uncovered about a square foot of what was the vault, but after about an hour the entire vault was uncovered. It used to be made of white metal, but has been stained by time and by the underground earth. The vault is fairly big, with heavy duty hinges attached to an even larger wall, and a large hinge in the center. Directly above the wheel though are unfamiliar foreign symbols etched and painted onto the vault. The MAUs intruct the workers to stop once everything is uncovered enough. The workers back away a bit to examine in awe what they have discovered.

"This... is very strange", Anthia murmers. "What would a vault be doing secluded from the rest of the octarian undergrounds?"

"It doesn't look octarian to me", Renin replies. "We need to get this opened."

"Not without proper protection. Something dangerous might be on the other side." Anthia turns to the group of workers. "Everyone! Gather equipment suitable to enter this vault. You all, including Renin and I, will see what is on the other side."

The group of workers drop thier drills and scramble off to the equipment station for proper suits and tools. After a while they come back ready. Once they are, Anthia directs the workers to turn the hatch to open it. A select group approaches the hatch wheel and firmly attempts to turn it.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Renin asks Anthia as they watch the workers.

"You _said_ this was our last resort, right?" Anthia gives a mocking smile to Renin.

"I suppose..." Renin replies.

After a couple of tugs, the workers finally manage to get the hatch turning. It screeches in protest against the vault openers, but continues to turn nonetheless. Soon enough the hatch has reached it's limit, and the vault is able to be opened. Anthia signals the workers to continue, and they reposition themselves to open the vault completely. Steam and fog hisses as the vault is cracked open. The hinges screech with age as a gust of wind escapes from the inside, fog leaving the vault and sinking to lay on ground. The vault is finally opened, and on the other side is something no was expecting to see. Something that has only ever been explained in their history books...

 **To be Continued.**

 _ **Hello**_ _ **again readers! I'm already excited to begin writing the next chapter. All I ask of you is to give me some feedback on how I'm doing, and if I should continue. Until next time!!!**_


	2. Chapter 1: Sleeping Through

**_Its time for the first_ true _chapter of the series! If it took a little too long to make this chapter, then I'm sorry haha. I've been very busy with work and whatnot. Anyways here you go! P.S.: Now that the story has started, it will change perspectives from 3rd to 1st, just to prevent confusion._**

 **Chapter One: Sleeping Through**

Just like any other morning, I regain my consciousness before I open my eyes. I can already tell this will be "one of those days" when I don't feel like getting out of bed for the scheduled breakfast. I'm thinking about going back to sleep and missing breakfast. What is it today, cinnamon rolls and juice? They're too sweet for this early in the morning, but my parents will try to wake me up and make me eat it. They're always "by the book", wanting me to attend every meeting, food times, and any other event. My younger brother and sister are fine with it, but I'm starting to grow a little tired of the lack of freedom in this place. I know they just want to do these things for the best, but I can't help but to get tired of it from time to time. Maybe my mom will cut me some slack since I did all that work yesterday. Plus it's Saturday, so most people just sleep in anyways and take the breakfast leftovers once they wake up, as would I. I'll just go back to sleep and eat when I wake up...

 _But wait_ _. Something seems off. I'm having to take deeper breathes than normal, and I feel slightly cold. Not only that, but a red flashing light keeps seeping through my closed eyelids._

My first instinct is to open my eyes. The first thing I see from my blurry morning vision is dirty glass, and passed that a room that hasn't looked cleaned in weeks, lit up by a flashing red light rotating on the ceiling. I take in all of the details, and the memories start to flood into my brain. I vaguely remember stepping inside a sleeping capsule with the help of the authorities for some reason. Soon enough, I instantly realize the muffled sound of the emergency alarm timidly entering my ears. I tense up, my eyes shoot wide open and awake, and I start to breath harder and harder, vapor escaping my mouth. I'm not in my bed. I'm in my emergency sleeping capsule, and oxygen seems to not be ventilating through it. The screens and buttons on the inside of my capsule are blinking red, reading "WARNING: OXYGEN LEVELS CRITICAL" and "PLEASE LEAVE THE CAPSULE". I frantically dart my head around in search for the emergency release, and there it is. There's a small clamp at my feet for my foot to press down on to open my chamber. I raise my right foot as high as it can move in this small space, and stomp on the manual release. I realise I have no shoes, and I just stomped on a cold metal pedal. Pain surges through my foot, and the manual release barely budges.

"Dammit..!" Escapes my mouth, not having enough energy to speak aloud.

I raise my foot once more, this time tilting my foot upward, and drive my heel down on the clamp. Success! The clamp completely closes, and the edges of my capsule door are highlighted by the exterior light. With all of my might, I press my palms against the glass and push as hard as I can, which isn't saying much. The lack of oxygen for who knows how long has hindered my strength, as well as the speed of my thought process. The door slowly opens, and giving the fact my capsule was slightly slanted, gravity does the rest of the work and opens the door completely.

Fresh air engulfs me and my lungs as I stumble out of my chamber, on my hands and knees, onto the cold white-tiled floor. I begin to notice that I'm in a sleeping suit, which is only almost-skin-tight shorts over my underwear, which explains why I am so cold. The alarms were muffled by my chamber, but now that I'm out they are blaring and ringing my ears. After a coughing fit, along with heavy breathing, I raise my head to inspect my surroundings. I'm in a a dirty sleeping chamber room. Rows and columns of capsules neighbor mine much like how a locker room would look, and they are all closed. The floor beneath me is cracked and old, dirt collecting between the tiles and occasional chips. To my left and right is a small stretch between two rows of identical chambers, each having its own serial number on the sides. After a moment of recovery, I begin to question myself: Why hasn't anyone else awaken yet? If I am the only one awake, then I have to warn somebody about what's going on! I use my right leg to pick myself up, my legs trembling from the stress I'm putting onto them. I then proceed to examine the sleep capsule directly across from me, approaching it one shaky step at a time. Once I reach the capsule I use the glass door as supoort for my body and cup my hands against it for me to see inside. The red blinking buttons and screens on the interior dimly light up the inside, showing no one. The capsule is empty? But why? I look to the dialpad on the right side of the chamber. On the small screen it reads "EMERGENCY RELEASE" blinking red. I frantically tap the ACCEPT button right below, and the chamber immediately opens. I then grab the door and open it, almost falling in the process. To no surprise, the capsule was not occupied. I stand in disbelief at what, or rather what _doesn't_ stand before me.

"Maybe its just this one", I say under my breath and I place my hand on my head.

I slowly turn right to confront the next capsule beside the one I checked. Just like the other one, this capsule is empty as well. What is going on? I ignore the dialpad and move on to the next one. Empty. I hastefully move on to the next one. Empty again, and so is the one after that! I anxiously begin to jog, then the jog becomes a run. My eyes skim through every glass door I pass by. One by one, I discover that each chamber is closed and empty, until I come across one that differenciates itself from the others. I stop in my tracks, almost sliding across the floor and falling on my back. I then backtrace to the special chamber. Something seems to be inside this capsule, and cupping my hands around my face doesn't help focus my vision through the glass. My only option is to activate the emergency release. My finger presses against the ACCEPT button once more before the door opens. I open the the door to reveal who was encased in glass... _But dread instantly overcomes every fiber of my being when I see who what was laying there._

A long-rotted skeleton lays in eternal sleep, half of its jaw unhinged. Whoever it was has been dead for a very long time. My heart pounds in my chest and my whole body shakes with fear.

"No..." I whisper. "No. No. No!" I repeat it over and over again, and if I weren't in a state of shock, I'd most likely be balling my eyes out. I begin to whimper for every breathe I let out. My knees and ankles give way, causing me to helplessly fall to the ground. My breathing turns into hyperventilation, and I cannot control myself. That man was dead! They're all dead or missing! I _have_ to be the only one left!

The anxiety-enducing sounds of the alarm abruptly stops and the red flashing light shuts off, returning the LED ceiling lights light the room properly. My panic attack resides, and I look up from the floor confused.

 _ **Silence.**_

So silent, I can hear the lights on the ceiling buzz. Moments pass while I'm frozen in my current position, but after a while I work up the courage to stand back up. What just happened? The moments of silence gives me time to calm down and think. If there was a _real_ skeleton in that sleeping chamber, then that means our underground shelter had failed quite a long time ago. But how long? How long have I been in my chamber? And why _me?_ I need to know the date, what year it is. If I go back to my room I can grab my phone, as well as some clothes, and hopefully I can gain some insight on what's going on. My curiosity has driven me to start moving once again. I finally make my way out of the sleeping room, and into a hallway.

Nothing can be heard but the sound of my bare feet silently slapping the porcelain floor of the long hallway. It feels sort of awkward and exposing to be walking down a public hallway half-naked. The hallways are more like half-tubes than rectangles; no legitimate edges to define walls and a ceiling. The floor however has flat, and almost looks the same as the tiled floor in the sleeping room. The only differences are that trash and rubber marks from the soles of shoes are littered here and there, giving signs that somebody has been running a little too fast in the hallways. This brings up even more questions, despite how small the details are. Who was running and why? Usually one of the higher-ups enforce a strict "no running" policy for the hallways on this end of the bunker. Could there have been an emergency before I woke up, when others were still here? I scan the hallway for more clues as I progress. Let's see here. There's rubber marks, some trash overflowing at one of the small garbage bins nearby, but most of it is crumpled up napkins and candy bar wrappers. Nothing else seems worth investigating.

My journey through the hallway ends when I enter a familiar open space in the bunker. Around the perimeter of the central room are all sorts of market kiosks, restaurants, and recreational centers, as well as benches, tables, and water fountains. In the center of the space is a large spiral staircase curling around a tall dead tree. How dead the tree looks can hardly be described, for most of the remains have already fallen to the ground, ruining the glossy design the bunker tried to portray. Upstairs is where all of the residential buildings are, so that is where I am headed. I reach the bottom of the stairs and, with curiosity, feel the surface of the dead tree. My hand almost sinks as I touch the mushy surface of the tree base, and with that a large branch falls from the top of the tree down on the ground, giving out a deep yet soft thud and making me jump out of my skin. I continue up the stairs nonetheless.

Many of the doors to the houses are wide open, and as I pass them I can see the inside, and how almost every one of them looms like it'd been hit by a tornado. Clothes, trash, and various objects are scattered everywhere in all of the houses, rotted and eroded by time. Some of the objects have even escaped to the outside onto the balcony of the second floor. There _definitely_ _was_ some kind of emergency going on. It looks like either someone came in to ravage and loot the bunker before leaving, or the residents themselves gathers some things and left in a hurry. It would really help if I knew why though.

Here it is, me and my family's house. Just like the others, this one's door is opened and the contents inside are a mess. I walk inside and recognise some of the things that have been left behind, despite how time has changed their looks. My brother's action figures, my sister's dinosaur costume, and a bunch of of parents' clothes everywhere. The living room has been totally trashed. The couch had sunken in, the flatscreen TV had fallen, and the bookshelf had been tipped over, leaving faded books and ripped paper everywhere. I step over some of the house's remains and take a look at all of the rooms. My brother's room: trashed. My sister's room: seemingly demolished. My parent's room: destroyed. Pillows and blankets are missing from all of the rooms, and nothing noticably important is in sight. That's enough scouting the rest of my house. I need to find my phone. My room door had been opened like the rest, so I get a glimpse of what's inside. My pillow and blankets have been removed, and some of my collectibles from my shelf are missing. Once I step inside I find that my smartphone is peeking out from under my bed, and I quickly grab it to turn it on. The screen stays unlit and unresponsive as I press my finger on the power button.

"Dammit!" I say to myself, cursing my luck. I shouldn't be surprised that it won't turn on though. Almost everything around here is old and rotten. Hopefully there are some clothes in my closet that haven't met the doom of time.

I turn to my closet and open the door. Most of my clothes have fallen from their hangers, but a select few of them seem to be fit for me to wear. A red shirt and some blue jeans should work nicely. Once I put them on, a get a good feel on how the fabric changed. its more stiff than normal clothes, like when I put my laundry in the dryer and forget to add fabric softener. There are wrinkles all over my shirt, but thats the least of my problems. After I adjust myself to the clothing, I grab my phone and put it in my pocket. Then, something interesting catches my eye on my dresser.

A folded up sheet of paper, yellowed with age, sits neatly on my dresser next to a photo of me and my family. The photo is a picture of my little sister Elisa on my shoulders, my little brother George on my dad's shoulders, and mother, who is hugging my dad. We all seem happy in this photo, but where and when we took this photo has lost me. Blinking away from the photo, I carefully take the note and unfold it. Its extremely brittle, so I take extra care. I get it completed folded, with the cost of slightly damaging and chipping the edges. It seems to be a letter made up of rushed and obscured handwriting. Through the obscurity, I recognise that its my Dad's. The first words intrigue me, and I don't hesitate to begin reading

 _"Sean, there i--uch time to explain. Your mother-is trying h--est to w-k- you-f-om your sle--, but the pa--ers ar--'t pe-mitt--g any--nt-r, and are maki--ather our things to evacua-- bunker. Sean it- real-y bad. There are these s--ange p--y --r-d --a--e wh- are --in- in and --l--g us and t--ur fo--Im writing this j-st in cas- if we cant reac- you, but I pray to God -e can. If we can't get -- y-u, I want you to know that the b-nker's people are e--at--g to the bunker X_-437--28 about 2--0 mi--s north. I love you s-n, I hope we will s-e each oth-r soon._

Dad

Tears form in my eyes. Dad wrote me a goodbye letter, explaining to me something about evacuating because of something, and that mother was trying to wake me up, but couldn't for some reason. The note says something about another bunker somewhere around 2000 miles away? The serial numbers' right there but I don't know what any of it means. And on top of that not all of it is readable! They may be still alive and out there! I _have_ to find out where they are and how to get there! But... wait. Wouldn't they already be dead? Has my entire family died of old age?

At this point, an uncontrollable stream of tears violently flow down from my eyes as I become choked up, coughing and spitting everywhere. I have nothing left now. I scream out loud, cursing in disbelief. What am I to do now, search for another bunker and live without a family?

I hear something over my fit of tears, making me calm down a bit. A big boom followed by a series of things clattering outside the house. It makes me jump a little, but also stops my episode. I turn to angle my ears towards the sound to hear a better detail of what it was, but silence follows the noise. I turn back to the note, folding it back to its original state, and gently place it into my back pocket to invenstigate what is going on outside. Is it another person? Is someone else in the bunker alive just like me? I step outside my house and cautiously left and right on the second floor. Nothing. Then I sneak to peek over the balcony.

A rush of excitement floods my body as I gasp from disbelief. A group of people wearing dirty equipment, holding drills and electonics, entered the open area on the first floor, curiously looking around like tourists. Excitement transforms into confusion when I see that they all have long rounded-off ears and strange looking hair. It almost looks like octopus tentacles on thier head. Plus, the color of their eyes are unnatural colors, ranging from orange to purple. All of these people have small unfamiliar pistols on their side. Right behind the group of people are two others who look different from the rest. One man and one lady enter the room through one of the hallways, both of which have weird waterguns on their backs and uniforms. The group spreads out among the grounds, tapping on kiosks, even entering some of the restaurants. During that, the two other people approach the center of the room at the tree, speaking a bizarre language. Its not just what they say that confuses me, its how their voices sound. Its almost like they are speaking through a vintage radio or something, but that's just how they speak normally. Plus, I can't make out a single clue of where they sperate their words.

During the conversation between the two, the man with red tentacle-like hair outstretches his hand to feel the tree, just as I had have already. Once he does, the entire tree shakes, yet another branch falling down. But _this_ time, the tree branch is right above me, falling towards my head.

 _ **The very first chapter is finally done! Ive been thinking about it, and maybe I could change perspectives between Sean and the Anthea in order to lay out a detailed story, up until Sean can understand them, anyways. What do you think? Should I go with this idea, or should I stick woth Sean's perspective to not break the immersion? Leave a comment and I'll be sure to check it! Until next time!**_


	3. Chapter 2: Path to Reunion

_**Alright, so in this chapter, I will be changing perspectives back and forth to make everything interesting for you readers to better follow what's going on. Oh and by the way, I seriously thank the ones who actually gave me feedback! It really makes my day to open up fanfiction to see that some people appreciate my work. Every so often I check back over and over again 'cuz I get excited haha. Also, I'll be sure to focus on my weak points that some of you have noticed. Anyways, I hope you like this next chapter!**_

 **Chapter 2:** **Path to** **Reunion**

"Shit!" I whisper, diving out of the way.

The branch hits the balcony railing and floor, disintegrating and scattering down to the bottom floor. The sounds of the group of people walking stops, and so does everything else. Slowly but surely, I cautiously get back up on my knees.

"$#@$!!!" That same weird language comes from behind me, so I instinctively turn around.

As I turn, both the speaker and I jump a little. This guy, who is holding me at gunpoint with a water gun thing, looks almost my age, but that is the only similarity. I was correct! They really do have tentacles for hair. His are blue-ish purple, pulled back into some ponytail. As for the rest of his body, around his eyes are painted black, and his ears are a lot larger than mine, almost coming up to points at the ends, but rounding off instead. This scared guy is wearing a dirty suit of some sort.

After a couple of seconds, the guy holding me at gunpoint starts to speak out loud to the group some more, not breaking eye contact from me as I slowly back away from him in fear. Before I can even try to make a break for it, the person raises his gun towards me even more, raising his very strange voice...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Uhh, Advisor Anthia?? Wh-What do I do? It's backing away!" One of my workers calls out for me from the second-floor balcony.

I look up the balcony, but I can barely see the mysterious figure. "Grab it and bring it down here!" I turn to Renin, who has his eyes locked on the creature. "Go help him out. He's about to ink himself."

Renin breaks his trance, looks at me and nods. He then rushes up the spiral staircase to meet up with the drill worker.

"Woah!" Renin is taken aback from the creature, making me eager to see it.

"Hurry it up, will you?" I raise my voice for him to hear.

"On it, sorry Advisor," Renin apologizes.

He and the drill worker raise their octoshots at the figure, escorting it down the stairs. They then take hold of its shoulders and places it on his knees in front of me, and _what a creature._ It looks like a teenage boy almost. He has weird fuzz on his head, like really skinny and yellow tentacles. His ears are super small as well, and no black outlining around his eyes! As for his general emotional state, he looks scared shitless, and has he been crying lately? I can see trails of where tears used to be leading down deep green eyes. I've never seen a creature like this before. He doesn't even look aquatic!

"What is this thing?" I ask Renin as I approach the creature.

"Don't ask me", Renin replies. "I've never seen anything like it. Maybe a bottom feeder?"

A worker behind me speaks up. "Could it be one of those humans they talk about in history?" Whispers are murmured throughout the mining crowd.

"Of course not! If its anything, it's probably a bottom feeder like Renin says. Humans are just a myth anyway." I reply without breaking eye contact with the creature.

I and the creature have locked eyes; I want to examine him a little more. I lean in closer to the creatures face...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The octopus lady stares at me with here galaxy-like blue eyes in unwanted curiosity. What the hell? She then leans in closer to my face, violating it with her eyes, as well as my personal space. I wince back my head to save my personal bubble, but it fails miserably, for she only moves closer, her breath gently brushing my face. The details of her face can really be defined at this perspective, however. Her eyes strangely look like stars live in them, and the tentacles on her head look very glossy.

She slowly raises her right hand and reaches for me. There's nothing I can really do sadly, but it's not like I'm getting punched, right? Her palm and fingers make contact with the bottom of my chin, and she tries to turn my head left and right for more examination. Her hand feels weird and slightly slippery, and the rest of her body is probably the same way. I feel the need to resist, but I'm afraid I'll get shot.

"Uh, can you please get out of my face?" I say, hoping they are bilingual. As I say this, the lady jerks back, as does the entire group of other octopus people behind her. Some of them even gasp. After this, she backs away and starts to speak to the uniformed guy holding me.

I don't know what to do, nor do I know how to get out of this situation. I begin to think back to the bunker my Dad wrote about. Everyone in this bunker must have left through the emergency hatch down the hallway in front of me to escape, but submarines are always connected to them because the ocean floor is there. If I knew how to pilot a submarine, then I'd have a clear path to freedom. Maybe I could figure it out. There's no other way out anyways. I know where the room to the hatch is because everyone is required to know while they live in here. I'll break free, run pass the lady, enter the room, open the hatch, and climb into the submarine. All I need to do is wait for the lady to turn her back. I'll risk my life for this and try to dodge some bullets.

The octopus people exchange words (I think) for a couple more minutes, and the lady looks like she tells the group to spread out and search for something, maybe more humans. _Any moment now._ In the process of her giving out orders and pointing fingers, she turns her back away from me. Now's my chance!

Without warning, I jerk away from the two holding me and make a break for it passed the tentacle lady, accidentally almost knocking her down, and haul ass for the hallway in front of me. I can hear their distorted voices calling out to catch me as they chase me down. I make it to the hallways and follow the directional signs attached to the ceiling. I have to take a right, two lefts, and one more right. That should be the way. My legs work like pistons as they violently push off the floor. I start to hear them gain on me, and they're guns begin to fire, causing my heart to leap to my throat. I won't look back because if I do, I'm done for. But for some reason, I start to hear the sounds of a group of fish swimming through water. Confused as all hell, and ignoring the "don't look back" thing I was just talking about, I look back. The long-eared people _transformed_ into these small octopi forms, swimming through dark purple ink that others are shooting out of their water guns. _Holy shit! These things are aliens!!!_ _And those aren't water guns!_

" _Oh fuck",_ I exclaimed, turning my head back in front of me, trying to run faster. Here's my first turn! I pass all of the maintenance rooms and turn right, and this part of the hallway is shorter. The next turn is already in sight.

Behind me, I hear a high pitched whirring noise, like a futuristic gun powering up. I start to panic, and before I know it its fires. I expect an intense amount of pain to sprout in my back, but instead, I'm pushed forward slightly and my back feels wet..? Nevermind that. It hasn't slowed me down so I should be fine. I take the next turn, almost slipping on the purple liquid they shot out from behind me. What the hell are these guns? Over the sounds of the other gunshots meant for me is another whirring sound. It's charging up again! I have to dodge it this time! I don't know what this inky stuff does, but I don't want to find out. I start to sprint in a zig-zag pattern and the gun fires. Ha! It misses! A ray of ink is splattered on the wall to my left, but then I see a small blue octopus swimming in it, defying gravity almost. My eyes shoot open when I see it swim pass me, reverting back to that blue tentacled lady and landing right in front of me! I attempt to run past her while she reaches out to grab me. I move right past her, but she successfully grabs the back of my hundred-year-old shirt. Instead of her catching me, my shirt rips away since its so old. I'm still free from the aliens and I continue on as I hear her call out in anger.

I continue down the hallway taking my last left, half of my shirt ripped away. I little ways more and I'm free! Run harder than ever before, and ink continues to be shot at me, some of it making contact with my bareback. I can hear the shooters shouting at each other. Are they surprised it's not doing anything? I reach the end of this part of the hallway and take my final turn. At the end of the hallway is a big metal door leading to a ladder. The door is half open; The escapees left in the bunker probably never shut it all the way. I push my feet off the ground harder and harder, and I finally reach the door. Just from grabbing the end of the door, I can already tell this is one heavy metal door, so I don't bother trying to close it. I know they are still going to follow me, but I've got a couple of yards off my tail. I enter the room, and I freeze from what's inside.

Skeletons. Skeletons everywhere! They are all in lab coats, some of them laying their skull and arms across the control panel countertops, while others just lay lifeless on the ground. I can feel myself freaking out, but _no!_ This isn't time to have an episode again! I shake my head, and I notice a pistol in the dead boney hands of someone on the ground. To eradicate any chance of me freaking out again, quickly reach and grab the gun and immediately stuff it in my pants on my right side. I then run for the ladder in the middle of the back room. At this point, I hear the aliens enter the room, and I don't stop to look. Instead, I just climb the ladder like my life depends on it, because _it does._ My hands grab one bar after another. I even leap a little, skipping bars below me. I can hear the octo-aliens start climbing from the bottom of the ladder, encouraging me to climb faster. There it is, the hatch!!! I reach the top of the ladder to the hatch, grab its crank, and twist as hard as I can. The hatch barely twists, and the octo-people are gaining on me. I twist harder and harder, grunting and shouting out. Finally, the hatch opens slightly, and I push up on it with all my might. At this point, the aliens reach me, grabbing at my feet and trying to pull me down. I shake my feet violently, kicking some of their faces and making them fall down while others rise up to replace them. I continue to push on the hatch and I can see it open. Light pours down on me as I open it wider and wider while hands grab onto my feet and practically climb up my body.

Finally, the hatch opens, flushing light down the ladder hole and onto my face. I have many questions from this, but no time to think. The octo-people almost pull me down, but I rise up again and kick them off of me. I then climb out of the hatch and pull the hatch off the ground to swing it back closed, but it's very heavy. I grunt and groan as I pull the hatch off of the ground, and I can hear that familiar lady shouting from the hole, her voice getting closer and closer. I pull even harder, the hatch beginning to make way. Just in time, the hatch tips over and I let it fall back in place, jumping on top of it and screwing it shut. The hatch is so thick that the voices on the other side are barely audible. I twist and twist and twist the hatch's wheel until I can't do it anymore. I scream out from the adrenaline running through my veins. They try to unscrew the hatch, but I protest against them. And since I'm in a better position to keep it closed, the wheel doesn't budge. I can hear them shouting at each other in their own language for minutes at a time, and eventually, it dies down. I don't lose grip of the wheel, acting as if they are still trying to reopen it. This goes on for what seems like forever, and after a while, I hear nothing from the other side.

Moments pass and my grip on the wheel loosens. The adrenaline passes, draining all of my strength away and causing my body to collapse face up next to the hatch. My eyes close to protect them from a mysterious beaming light. I rest from my tiring day, closing my eyes.

"I'm free. I'm finally free..." These words escape my mouth with each breath I take. "I. Will find my family. And I'm gonna hug. My mother. My Father. My brother. And my sister..." I lay there for moments at a time, just breathing in and out with my body spread out on the ground. I will stop at nothing to find that bunker and reach my family. I'll do whatever it takes to accomplish my goal and reunite with the ones I love. Throw more aliens at me, shoot at me, I don't care. I will find them.

I can feel myself slip away from consciousness, and I don't fight it. I'm exhausted, both physically, mentally, and emotionally. The last sensation I feel is a single tear running down my right cheek...

 _ **Don't worry, the few**_ _ **guys reading my story, for I am still alive! I've been quite busy these couple of days, with work and all. I'm going to be working on fleshing out the characters a lot more, especially Sean. I have been planning ahead before I write the future chapters so everything is running smoothly. If you're feeling it, go ahead and leave a review or PM me what you think I'm struggling on or if you have any suggestions/requests on what minor things I can sprinkle into my story. Until then!**_


	4. Chapter 3: The Turning  (02-21 16:45:13)

**Chapter 3:** **The Turning of Tables**

The very core of my body, organs, brain, bones, the surface of my skin, my soul. They all feel cold. Cold inside and out. Despite this, I don't warm myself up. Instead, I lie still, subconsciously accepting my current state. Dare I say it, I am comfortable in my haze of unconsciousness. My senses creep up on me. First my touch, then hearing, then sight. The metal surface I lay on, like me, feels utterly cold and lifeless. My ears, though numb, begin to kick itself awake, sending a high pitched tone in my ears and nailing into my brain. Noises finally reach my ears: a sequential pattern of muffled beeping softly fills my ears like a lullaby. If it weren't for the red flashing disturbing my rested eyes, I would be sound asleep. Deep breaths. My lungs slowly swell with stale air, then deflate. This process slowly becomes more difficult over time. In and out, in and out. My heart rate rises gently as I find it harder to breathe.

 _Wait..._

The cold, the beeping, the lack of air, the red flashing. _Oh god, not again!_

My eyes shoot wide open as I rise from the ground, gasping and gulping air and exposing my sensitive eyes to blinding light. I gasp and wheeze, squeezing my aching chest. I'm alive, thank god. I try to regain my composure, wiping the sweat from my cheeks and brow. back when I still lived in the bunker, the authorities told us that cryo sleep can affect us even after we stop using it. It'll take about two weeks until the post-cryo sleepers stop getting the feeling of cryo-sleep, and since I woke up to mine malfunctioning, I'm probably going to wake up like that for another 14 days. In the process of wiping my face, I notice my hands are stained with purple ink, along with yellow-ish orange gravel, dirt, and dust. That's strange, why would there be dirt in a submarine station..? I take a glance at my surroundings for the first time after escaping.

Wow. I'm not in the submarine station at all! There's dry dirt, gravel, and rocks as far as the eye can see in this dark cave. The only light source seems to be a spotlight in my position coming from the skylight above me. I look up, shading my eyes with my ink-stained hand, to see a giant hole leading to the outside. Where is the submarine station? I was supposed to be in the submarine evac station, but instead, I find myself in a dark cave? Nothing has been going my way since I woke up from my cryosleep. Where did this cave even come from? I stand up and squint my eyes, peering into the darkness outside of the spotlight. I can barely make out vague shapes of the cave walls. No exit in sight. A sigh of frustration leaves my mouth as I sit back down on the ground next to the rusty hatch.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"What does that creature think he's doing?"

After I ordered everyone to search the rest of the bunker for a power source, I went back to my office and grabbed a few things so I can catch this creature. I prep up my supercharged suction bomb for me to use on the vault. This device isn't like any other splat bomb. Using the batteries from Renin's special drill (he won't mind), this baby is fused with small voltage and will explode hard enough to blow the hinges right off of that vault. There's no way that creature can hold it down!

"There", I exclaim in victory. "He thinks he can escape the undergrounds from a professional Octoling miner? We'll see about that!" I attach the bomb to my backpack and use both my hands to climb back up the ladder.

I didn't just bring an electrically-charged suction bomb, but I've brought some of my own expensive equipment to bring this guy down. I have my octarian battle suit, my unique modified octoshot that shoots super sticky ink, a couple of splatter bombs, my general mining equipment bag, and last but not least a military-grade thought translator! This way I can stick it to that thing's forehead and I'll be able to understand it. Oh, the juicy facts I can get from inside his head! If he is an undiscovered species (he has to be intelligent like us, right?), I can only imagine what I could gain from its thoughts! Fame, fortune, that new pair of shoes I've been wanting for a while. Sure, Octavio wouldn't be happy that I went against his orders to search for underground power, but he'd be astounded at what I find!

Here it is, the hatch! I wrap my right arm around the ladder and reach for the bomb. I can hardly contain my excitement that I almost drop the bomb, my hearts leaping to my throat. Thankfully I catch it and stick it to the hatch before I can make any more mistakes. My last step is to set the timer and get the hell away from it...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After moments of sitting in this dark cave doing nothing but thinking of a way to get out of here, something catches my ears' attention. My ears twitch, and I look towards the source of the sound. It's coming from the other side of the hatch right beside of me, and it sounds something similar to the whirring gun that was shooting at me during the chase. That's weird. Why would they be using that gun again if they can't even reach me? That thought runs through my head while I lean closer to the hatch, but then the whirring's pitch slowly starts to rise. Is that... a bomb?? I scramble back away from the hatch as the pitch rises even further and brace for something dangerous to happen.

 _ **BOOM!**_

The hatch bursts open, sending itself high in the air and falling on the gravel with a heavy _thunk_ , both of the heavy duty hinges shattering like glass and ricocheted everywhere. My ears ring from the sound bouncing off the cave walls, having nowhere to go. By the grace of God, none of the shrapnel hits my body. Instead, a massive amount of purple ink covers half of my body, not counting the ground around where the hatch used to be. I try to wipe us much of the stuff off my now ruined clothes, but suddenly an octopus shoots up out of the hole. The octopus transforms into the familiar lady before she lands next to the hole, holding a bag full of equipment and a utility belt. She's wearing something different than before: a tight, zip-up black crop top with only one long sleeve and a tight mini skirt. _Why_ she is wearing such revealing appearance is beyond me, but that's the least I am focusing on. The lady pulls an ink gun from her back and aims it at me, speaking her language again. Before I can respond, she dashes off to the side and shoots black ink at me. My eyes follow the ink, and I turn to see that it landed directly behind me on the ground.

"Ha! You miss-"

I turned back at the shooter only for her boot to collide into my chest, causing me to fall face up onto the puddle of black ink. Her kick was only meant to push me down, so I don't hurt very much. My bareback, however, doesn't feel very good against the rocky ground. I try to get up from my position, but the ink between me and the ground is extremely sticky. My body struggles to turn on its side, but the ink firmly holds me in place. I feel like a beetle on its back, completely helpless and vulnerable.

The octopus lady approaches and stands right above me, both her boots on each side of me. She pulls out an object from a pouch on her utility belt. It's a small red octopus-shaped device that blinks. She crouches down and tries to put the damn thing on my head! I try to turn my head, but my hair is all caught up in ink.

"What the hell are you doing?! Get off of me and get that thing out of my face!" I shout, struggling my entire body as the device is pressed against my forehead.

The device is warm against my brow, and I can feel the mechanical parts crawling into my skin. I scream and shout in pain as it burrows itself into my head. The worst part is that I cannot resist or writhe in pain, making it ten times worse. The lady above me watches in horror at what she has done. Is she _really_ surprised that it wouldn't hurt me? It finally stops digging at my brain and the pain recedes away. I try to recover from the pain, catching my breath. What did she just implant in my head? Is it some kind of alien mind control devices they use to abduct humans?! Is this how it goes for all of those unlucky people who people think are crazy? I can feel my warm blood slowly leak from my new wound.

"Oh my god. What did you do!?" I say. "Am I going to die?" I start to freak out.

" _Woah, I can actually understand you now!_ _This thing really works!_ "

 _What?_ Has she been bilingual this whole time? The octopus lady changes suddenly from horrified to excited and her eyes light up. I blink at her in disbelief.

"Wh-What's going on? Why do you decide to speak english _now_??" I stumble and babble through my words as the lady confidently smiles.

"Ah, english is the name of your language?" She stands back up from me. "No matter. I'm not speaking _english_ , I'm speaking aquatic. The thought translator on your forehead isn't a language translator. It goes both ways so you can understand me and I can understand you. When you speak or think, the thought translator converts it to aquatic for me to hear in my earpiece."

A thought translator? Does that mean she can read my thoughts? That's a total violation of my privacy!

"Yes, yes it is", the octopus says. "Though you can change the setting on the thought translator to only translate your words by strictly focusing on your Broca in the frontal lobe region of your brain. What you say will be spoken aloud in any language from the device."

My heart leaps to my throat as I frantically try to tinker with the device on my forehead. This is when I forget my arms are stuck to the black ink. "What!? H-how do I change it? This is exactly how I thought an alien abduction would go." I'm trying not to panic or think of anything stupid or embarrassing.

The lady places her hands on her hips and raises an eyebrow. " _Alien?_ Is _that_ what you think I am? Some kind of thing from outer space? I'm an octoling and if anything, _you_ are the alien. I've never seen anything like you. State what species you are this instant." Her voice is clear and demanding. So that's what she's called.

She can't be serious. "Is it not obvious? I'm human! What else _would_ I be?"

"Human" The lady is taken aback in denial. "No. That's impossible. Humans aren't real."

"I'm pretty sure I know what species I am. You know, a homosapien? That's the scientific term..?"

The lady pauses and looks off in thought, her hand under her chin. "You aren't lying are you?"

I don't understand. She can literally read my thoughts right now. "Wouldn't you be able to tell?"

Her eyes meet mine once again, a mixture of emotions swirling through. After a moment of silence, she speaks up again. "You're... You're really human! How is this possible?" She looks almost disgusted at herself for being wrong.

"How about I ask the questions? What are _you?_ And where did you come from?"

"Who am _I?_ " She says as if I of all people should. The octopus lady raises her gun up to her shoulders, confidently puffs her chest out and smiles. "Minery Advisor Unit Anthia Octonine, here to restore power for the Octarian cities!"

I expected answers, but now all I'm ending up with is even more questions. "Restoring power? Then what are you doing here trapping me in this black goo and sticking a mind reader to my head?"

"Well, uh", I caught her off guard. She doesn't look so smug with her apparently important title anymore. "I've come to investigate this mysterious creature that is yourself, to gain important information to report to my leader o-of course."

I give her the "stop bullshitting" face to her. She just here for her personal gain. But what? "You're not supposed to be here are you?"

Anthia's face becomes flustered, her face forming red with blush. "How dare you question me and my motives! Don't you know how important my directives are?"

I honestly couldn't care less who she was, but what she and where she _really_ came from. Besides, what kind of miner wears something I'd see in an adult night club? "That isn't my concern at the moment. My main concern is being stuck on the ground by some octopus alien and not being able to find my family. Now could you please let me go and change the damn setting on this thought translator?"

"Absolutely not. I'm not letting you go until I get answers from you. And for the record, I changed from my MAU uniform to a tactical one in case if things got difficult between you and I. There's nothing wrong with this suit! Now tell me how you survived through all these years. And what about this family of yours?"

"How about this", I say. "You let me free from this black stuff and I tell you? There's nowhere I can run anyways."

"How about _this",_ Anthia mocks me. " You answer my questions and _then_ I let you go?"

This is going nowhere. I sigh frustratingly. "I'll tell you, but if you want to ask me more questions then you'll have to let me out of this mess. Sounds good?"

She thinks for a while until she speaks. "Fine. But remember, I caught you once and I can catch you again. Now answer my questions."

I pause for a moment to collect my thoughts. Where do I start? The apocalypse? "I survived from the flood by hiding in that underground bunker along with thousands of others. I was put into cryo-sleep until everyone knew the Earth was safe to live on again. I think it was because we were running out of food and supplies, and my family went missing before I woke up, so my mission is to search for them."

"Wow... So the history books were right." Anthia says, stepping away from me to think. I guess she trusts the ink more now since she isn't directly above me. Or maybe she just trusts me a little more.

"History books? What are you talking about?" I say, confused. Are we some kind of ancient civilization to them?

"Let's just say no one has seen a live human before, and we consider you a skeptical part of old history. After the sea levels dipped down, aquatic life evolved into intelligent life forms and moved to land."

No. This can't be true, can it? How long did I sleep? And she's thinking about how lucky _she_ is? I don't know why only my cryo-pod was the only one left functioning, but my luck ran out when I figured out my family was gone.

I lay there, watching Anthia as she mumbles to herself in her ridiculous, revealing appearal she calls a suit. "Can you let me go now? I don't want to see you at this angle."

She stops mumbling and her face turns red with embarrassment and anger. "What? What do you mean?" She then covers her skirt. " _You're_ the one who's ridiculous!"

"Whatever. Just let me go like you promised. And can you change the damn setting on the thing in my brain so you can stop listening to my thoughts? It's super uncomfortable."

"No way. I'll let you go, but you could be planning to escape without me knowing."

"I could also be thinking about how distracting your suit is as well. Do you really want to hear that?" I'm not really the kind of guy to do that, but if it saves my privacy I'll say it.

Despite her knowing my thoughts right now, she's angry and embarrassed nonetheless. "Ugh, fine!!! Just hold still while I switch the settings. I almost regret putting this on you." Anthia approaches me and bends down, pressing on the device for a while. I guess she notices the blood that formed around the device that caused the wound because she does more than just tinker with the thought translator. He fingers touch around my wound, making it hurt.

"Ow! Stop touching my hurt spot and just fix the device!"

"Are you made of red ink or something?" Anthia completely ignores my demand.

"Why would I be made of _ink?_ I'm still bleeding from the mind reader. I think my skull might even be cracked or something, now please stop touching it!"

"You have a skeleton? That explains why it hurt you so much. You made me think I was killing you! Anyways, won't bandaids fix that?" Is she implying that her race has no bones? She turns and pulls off her backpack to grab something inside. She pulls out a white box and takes a small bandaid from it.

"I don't know if it'll work well for a human, but it's worth a shot." The octoling takes the plastic parts of the bandaid off and places it over the blood. She then puts her equipment back up and stands up.

"There. I can't read your thoughts anymore. That doesn't mean you can think of anything stupid about my battle suit though. Anyways, the only way to get that sticky ink off is for me to mix it with normal ink, and it seems you are unaffected by being splatted by my octoshot, so hold still." Anthia tweaks with her gun a little, turning the ink from black to purple, and aims it at my arm.

"Wait!" Before I can react, she pulls the trigger, letting a barrage of purple ink to splatter all over my head, arms, torso, and legs. The ink is warm. I could say that it's almost hot against my skin. I try to pull away from the black ink, and this time I'm actually separating from it. Soon enough, I release my arms and slowly sit up, wiping my eyes and spitting out excess ink.

"Ew, gross! You could have given me a warning before you decide to almost drown me in ink." I begin to wipe my body off.

"You're alright, aren't you? Now come on, I have to take you back to my leader Octavio." She walks back to the hatch's hole, holstering her gun.

"What? No! Didn't you hear me say I'm going to find my family?"

"Oh, shut up. You can find your family after my leader Octavio meets you. Having a human is way more valuable than any zapfish."

"You're not going to use me like I'm some kind of trophy, Anthia. I'm not coming with you, and say goodbye to all the other questions you have for me if you think I'm following."

"It's _Advisor Anthia_ to you. And if you won't comply, I'll force you to come with me using my extra sticky ink again!" Anthia provocatively approaches me slowly.

Dammit. There's no way I can escape from that shit. She'll take me to her leader like _I'm_ the alien, except I wouldn't doubt Octavio would want to keep me down here. She's got all kinds of equipment at her disposal: her backpack, utility belt, her gun. Wait, what about _my_ gun? It's still in my pants!

"I'm not going _anywhere_ ", I say, I use my shaking hand to pull out the pistol from my pants and immediately point it between Anthia's eyes. I'm not a gun expert, but I think it's an alternative version of the desert eagle. "Make another move and consider your head gone!"

Anthia hesitates. "W-what's that?"

"It's a million times better than your so-called octoshot. One pull of this trigger and it'll do more than just _splatter_ you." Oh my god, am I about to kill someone? If Anthia could read my mind right now, I'd be in big trouble, because I doubt I have the guts to actually shoot her.

Anthia sees the nervous sweat forming on my face. She hints a smile and takes a step toward me. "I'll take my chances, huma-"

 _ **BANG! BANG!**_ I squinted my eyes, shooting twice skyward as warning shots, the bullets blowing huge chunks from the cave ceiling and falling in front of me and Anthia. My ears are surging with pain, and my hearing is muffled. During these shots, Anthia jumps up in the air like a cat, not expecting such a loud explosion coming from a smaller gun.

I regain my composure after shaking my head a bit and try to bluff the most stern, angry expression I've ever thought I can make in this situation. Shoulders up, legs firm, and eyes on the target. Come on Sean, you can fake this. "This is your last warning! Now that I think of it, drop your gun and kick it to me now!" My voice is loud and clear. Like I said before, nothing's gonna keep me from finding my family.

Anthia is shaking in her boots, not breaking her sight from the chunks that my bullets caused. She does as I say, dropping her octoshot and kicking it to my feet. "W-what the hell is that thing?"

Shit, what _is_ this called? "Us humans call it the Desert Eagle. It shoots hard lead out and into its target at deadly speeds." It's an alternate version of the Deagle, but who cares.

I pick up the octoshot and tinker with its ammo tank. I somehow figure out how to take it off, and I throw it way off to the side. To make sure she can't use it again on me, I take my pistol and shoot at it. Another loud _bang_ can be heard, and the tank explodes with a mixture of black and purple ink spraying all over the cave walls. I throw the octoshot back to Anthia. I notice that she looks like she just pissed herself from the third shot.

"One more thing", I say. "Find me a way out of this shithole to the surface. You _did_ say the flood lowered long ago, so take me to the land above." Wow, I really am selling this "mean and demanding" facade, aren't I?

"Okay okay! If I do that can you stop waving that damn thing around?" Anthia's voice is shaking in fear.

I stop pointing the gun at her and hold it pointing upwards. "Lead the way octopus girl."

"Ugh," she grunts in anger. Anthia detaches a device from her belt and turns it on. "This is stupid. This is absolutely stupid!" She walks to the cave wall and fiddles with the device, a touchscreen popping up with a radar, signals, and unfamiliar letters. She starts to scan the perimeter of the cave. "This device searches for a number of things found in caves. Minerals, metals, electricity and air pockets. If my device picks up an air pocket, that's probably the exit.

I stand back and watch her do her work. "Even if you find an air pocket, how are we going to get to if it's blocked off by a cave wall?"

"I don't know. Maybe you should have thought about that when you were threatening to blow up my face. I'm doing the only thing I can right now." She continues to scan, but now I can feel the passive aggressiveness in her body language.

After a couple of minutes, the device starts beeping. "There. There's an air pocket right on the other side of this wall. The device says the pocket's huge, so it may just lead to the outside."

"Perfect!" I walk up to Anthia and study the wall. "Maybe we could use an explosive to blow the wall down?"

"I have no explosives. I used my only one to blow the hatch open." Anthia impatiently sighs. "Unless you want to blow chunks out of it using that gun of yours, I don't think there's a way of getting through this."

"Stand back", I say.

"What?"

"Stand back. I'm going to shoot the wall." I back away from the wall and cock my gun.

" _What?!_ " She moves away from my soon-to-be line of fire. "You're crazy!"

I ready my Deagle and point it at the wall. "Close your ears if you don't want to be startled again", I say as she's already plugging her ears with her fingers.

I take a shot, fire escaping the barrel and the bullet cutting through the air. The lead knocks bits and pieces of rock and rubble off the wall. I put the pistol back on safety and investigate my work.

"Oh, what are you doing _now?_ " Anthia still has her ears plugged.

The gun really did some damage to the wall, but no loose rock result from it. I grab an area of the wall, pushing and pulling. Nothing. I step back, raise my leg, and kick the wall. Nothing budges.

"I'm gonna get through this wall if it means I run out of ammunition. For my family!" I kick the wall again.

Anthia walks away and sits on a large rock, facing away from me and pouting with her fingers in her ears. I just continue what I'm doing. Once I realized I can budge it, I get far away from the wall and shoot at it again, each time making Anthia jumps a little. This process repeats a couple of times until I reach my second to last bullet. After all of that shooting and kicking and picking at the wall, I can see rays of light shining through the cracks of the wall.

"Anthia, I can see the other side!" I've been picking at the wall with my bare hand for a while.

"How many times will I have to tell you? It's _Advisor_ Anthia. Hurry up."

I reach the point where nothing else can be picked at without another bullet. I get back again and ready for another shot. Before I pull the trigger, Anthia speaks up.

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"What else should I call you other than 'human'?"

"My name is Sean. Sean Conrad." I line my eye up to the sights.

I shoot the gun once more, and the rocks that make up the wall almost completely fall apart. Nothing but a couple of kicks will do the trick.

"Yes! Anthia, could you help me with this?" I ask before I start at the wall.

She sighs. "I've got nothing else to do." Anthia joins me with destructing the wall.

We both pull rocks out from the wall, even more light shining through the crevasses. Through our work, I can't help but notice Anthia. She isn't doing anything particularly worth noticing, but I can't help but stare.

Despite Anthia being a total hardass, she hasn't really tried to knock me out and take me back underground. I mean yeah, I _did_ threaten her with my gun, but now that I think about it, there were multiple times I let my guard down. Can she really be that bad? She _is_ helping me take this wall apart even though she's deviating from her mission.

"There", Anthia says, breaking my train of thought. "You can crawl through the small space and get to the outside." She walks back to her rock she was sitting on to grab her mining device so she can put it back on her belt. "Oh, and wherever you're off to, I'm coming with you."

"What? Why?"

She pauses for a moment. "I... I'm not going to let a super rare species go off willy nilly to get killed. You're a walking monument to history. I'll be coming along to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Besides, a single bullet from your gun won't save you forever."

I smile warmly. "If it keeps you from crying then sure, you can come along."

"Whatever." She rolls her eyes.

I get down on my hands and knees and crawl through the small space, and Anthia follows after. It's a tight squeeze but means nothing if I can get to my family. I make my way through the small tunnel and finally meet the end. Once I crawl out, I stand back up and dust off my cut up knees, as well as my shoulders, arms, and back. I look up in the bright natural light, and what I see is nothing like I thought. Boulders, rocks, pebbles and gravel stretch all around me, and beyond that, gargantuan walls of rock and earth stand high, towering above me. It looks like I'm at the bottom of a crack in the earth!

"Ah, so this is where we are", Anthia crawled out of the tunnel. "This is octo-canyon, entrance to the octarian undergrounds."

 _ **Wow, so this took me a while to complete. As a form of apology, I made this chapter longer than the others. Tell me what you think about it so far, and if you have any suggestions or requests on what you want to be added to the story, (it can't interfere with the major plot) then you can PM me. Anyways, stay tuned for the next chapter!**_


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